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A Hedeby-style of bag has been on my wish-list for quite some time. I’ve used small totes to carry around my things, because I can’t do without my phone and other necessities on my person when at a costumed event. However, there are a few period-informed/speculated bags… and the (commonly called) Hedeby (or Haithabu) bag is one of them…

Of course, no actual bag survived… and there are no depictions clearly of the bag – but several objects in similar designs did survive in wood and bone, from multiple areas in the Viking world (not just Hedeby) – theorised to be handles to this bag style.

After making two new purple velvet “lute” shaped purses, I decided to make one with a slightly different shape, and this time in red and gold.

Three different purses, the two phallic-shaped ones, and the red lute-shaped purse

You might remember that my other “lute” shaped purses are very phallic. This is actually a documentable style, as per my previous research post. However, there is also a similar purse that is much more “lute” shaped, and a lot less phallic shaped, so I opted to try that design as well.

About a year and a half ago I made a purse shaped like a “lute” for an A&S competition. When we were trying to think of what kind of largess to make to celebrate Caterina’s elevation to the Order of the Laurel, I offered to make a purse shaped like a lute similar to the one I’d already made. The purse is late period, from a variety of sources in Europe (England, the Netherlands, Italy, and more) so is mostly suitable for her late-period Italian persona.

In my previous post about tournament prizes, I mentioned that I’m hoping to help host some Arts & Science tournaments, challenges, and displays this year. (As the SCA Avacal Kingdom A&S champion.) I want to have prizes to give away for participants/winners, so I needed to build a little stock of prizes to give away. Friends said that they were worn out of requests for largess (gifts), and instead would be much happier with a little crafting ‘sweatshop’ instead, making a number of items, assembly line style.

We already made notebooks, and then on May 7, 2016 I invited people to come over to help once again with a new project. Unfortunately two people who had come up with ideas were unable to attend, so it defaulted to a purse/pouch/tote ‘assembly’.

Each year for the holidays I host a little craft get-together, and this year, while it was super small (it’s always so hard to find a date that works for everyone… Note to self – next year do it in October!) it was still fun and we made some cute things. I ended up making things for myself instead (since I had already bought most of my gifts to give) which included two small skull-print coin purses, very much like the sushi-print ones I posted about earlier.

The large black (with white skull-and-crossbones) coin purse has a kiss-clasp, plus a little ring for coins or to clip the coin purse to another purse. The larger purse is lined with the same fabric as the smaller purse. The smaller black and white skull print purse is self-lined, and has a snap closure.

I used the sushi-print coin purses to divide up currency during my trip to Iceland and Finland, and totally knew I could use a few more!